Kansas City Museum Chandelier Project | | Right: Kansas City Museum; Left: Digital rendering of custom glass chandelier design | Join us this First Friday at the Belger Glass Annex (1219 E. 19th St. KCMO) to see a nine-artist team create a collaborative glass sculpture. From May 3 through May 9, they will also be working together at the Belger Glass Annex to create a chandelier that will be permanently installed at the Kansas City Museum. The installation is the culmination of a Belger Arts - Kansas City Museum collaboration involving the design and creation of the glass chandelier and the selection of these nine artists from a national call:
Gaffers – Tess Healy, Jacqueline Polofka, and Hoseok Youn
Assistants – Yana Artemov, Michael Carson, Claire Coffee, Olivia Dobkin, Jessalyn Mailoa, Kiani Simms
Mark your calendars for the following dates of free glassblowing activities, artist presentations, and the viewing of the finished chandelier at the Kansas City Museum:
First Friday, May 3 Tuesday, May 7 8:30am - 12:30pm & 1:30pm - 5:00pm at the Belger Glass Annex (1219 E. 19th St., KCMO): Catch the team in action during the chandelier production process. 6:30pm - 8:30pm at Belger Crane Yard Studios (2011 Tracy Ave., KCMO): Slide presentations and talks by participating artists.
Wednesday, May 8 Saturday, May 11 | | | On View at the Belger Arts Center | | Renée Stout, Crossroads, (detail), 1990s. Mixed media, 96 x 114 x 143 inches. Courtesy of the Belger Collection. | Artists included in Whispers and Screams: Voices from the Belger Collection at the Belger Arts Center (2100 Walnut St., KCMO) explore memories and perceptions of people, places, and moments in time. Some of those memories are loud and jarring. Others are more reflective and have softened with the passage of time. There are examples of stereotypes, idealized love, lust, romance, excitement, loss, and regret. There are glimpses into the complexity of communities at all levels, the commonalities, and the differences. The exhibition will be on view through August 3, 2024. To schedule a tour, please email gallery@belgerarts.org or call 816-474-7316. | | | Exhibitions at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery | | Don't miss your last chance to view Heartland 6, a juried exhibition of the Midwest’s finest glass art, closing May 4! Glass artists from Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma were invited to submit work to Heartland 6. The exhibition includes selected works by over 25 artists.
This year’s guest jurors were Samatha De Tillio and Leo Tecosky. De Tillio is a contributing editor to GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly and museum curator working with institutions including the Corning Museum of Glass, Museum of Art and Design, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, among others. Tecosky is a Brooklyn-based glass artist with a BA in Fine Arts from Alfred University and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Tecosky’s artwork explores the intersection of cultural and craft traditions with influences from hip-hop and graffiti.
The idea to host an annual "Heartland" exhibition began at Monarch Glass Studio in 2017. Since 2022 Belger Arts has carried on the tradition. Click below for a more information and for a list of participating artists. | | | | May Mugs of the Month are by Belger artist-in-residence Joel Pisowicz. Though Pisowicz makes a variety of objects, including sculptures, for steins he prefers to take a more traditional approach. His three guidelines for making steins are: 1) The stein must hold a lot of liquid; 2) the bottom should be larger than the opening for stability and to prevent spillage; and 3) the handle should be big enough to accommodate four fingers comfortably. As Pisowicz says, it’s all about, “ergonomics and stability.” Pisowicz's mugs are available online and at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery through May 31. | | | | For Digital Debut, Sarah Veak leans into her artistic origins, with clean lines and bold swaths of color that speak to her earliest work and some of her earliest memories. She wanted to create that feeling of nostalgia from her childhood--the checkered tablecloth in her grandmother's kitchen, air thick with the sweet nuttiness of pancakes and syrup, the scent of rich coffee, tree ripe orange juice and mouthwatering bacon.
Sarah Veak was born in the Southeast. In 2010, she apprenticed with studio potter Renata Wadsworth in Ithaca, NY. During this time, she learned everything from throwing pots to building and firing a wood kiln. Veak has worked and lived across the U.S. and continues to hone her craft. Based in Kansas City, she’s part of a strong clay community, working alongside some of that city’s best potters.
Veak's work will be available for purchase online and at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery through May 31, 2024. | | | | Salvador Jiménez-Flores, The Fire Next Time, 2022. Red and white stoneware, underglazes, glazes, black stain, gold luster, epoxy, wood. 83 x 20 x 20 in. Photo courtesy of the artist. | Salvador Jiménez-Flores is a Chicago-based artist and educator who, as a teenager, immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. His body of work is steeped in his experience as a bi-cultural, bilingual artist living “concurrently in two different worlds.” Arte-Sano: Soy libre porque pienso showcases the breadth of his practice through a range of media. His ceramics, glass, metalwork, photography, and prints reflect the artist’s continued exploration of the politics of identity and the state of double consciousness. He also highlights the struggles and complexities of Latinx people living in the U.S. A review of the exhibition is included on the KC Studio Magazine website. | | |
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